Review of Red Dawn (2012) by Eman S — 02 Jul 2013

I'm not completely sure why this film just had to be made. Red Dawn pretty much takes the same premise as the original, only instead of the Soviet Union invading America, we've got the North Koreans.

When the Eckert brothers escape into the woods with a select few escapees, they encourage the others to fight back for their freedom. I didn't think that the original Red Dawn was all that bad. It had a pretty good premise, as well as a passable script that made it pretty entertaining.

This remake, while boasting more action scenes, is pretty hollow compared to the original. For starters, I hate how they try to modernize everything. It creates some really stupid dialogue that just comes off as unforgivable.

I just couldn't stand some of the lines that were delivered in this film, especially from Josh Peck. I loved the guy when he was in Drake and Josh back in the early 2000s, but he's just not a good actor here.

His lines are forced and when he tries to speak out, it comes across as comedic rather than serious. I will give a hand to Chris Hemsworth who gives the best and most believable performance in the bunch.

Everyone else in the Wolverines group was either terrible or severely miscast. Even Josh Hutcherson, who's been impressing me in so many films, seems to not fit in here. Now, I've heard some pretty bad things about this film, but I can go ahead and say that this is nowhere near as bad as I've been hearing.

Whenever there's an action scene, the film regains my interest because it's well shot action and slightly makes up for the slow and stupid moments of dialogue. Unfortunately, the action scenes last five minutes maximum, so it's still not enough to save the film.

Still, when they're there, the scenes are enjoyable. I can go ahead and say that it's pretty much only worth a rental. The action scenes may be fun to watch, but the dreadful script and terrible acting drags this film down so far that not even the Wolverines can save it.